Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday launched her party’s election campaign in Gujarat with a call to the people to vote for change.
Cong president kicked off her Gujarat poll campaign by asking people to vote Modi out
ANAND: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday launched her party’s election campaign in Gujarat with a call to the people to vote for change.
“I seek in all humility your hands of cooperation for new Gujarat, where people can walk without fear and injustice, where there is a spirit of humanity and there is no corruption,” she said addressing a well-attended Mahila Samman Sammelan, 60 km from Ahmedabad.
“Exercising our vote is not just a right. It is our duty as well. It is now a golden opportunity to shape the future of Gujarat,” Gandhi said at her first public meeting in the state after the assembly elections were announced.
The state’s 182 constituencies vote in a two-phase election on Dec 11 and 16. She did not take up the Godhra issue after the Tehelka sting, but chose to target Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on the development front and the BJP over the Ram Setu controversy.
“They provoke the sentiments of the people through the Ram Setu issue but do not tell them the real truth behind the issue,” Sonia said. She said the Gujarat government was lying to the people of the state in the name of development.
She also targeted the BJP for creating a controversy over the Ram Setu, saying that the project was the brainchild of the NDA government, when it was at the Centre.
“What happened in 2002 and what was revealed about the riots to us recently is shameful. Would any society accept the kind of demonic and heinous activities done with our women? Who will know this pain better than us because we are all women,” said Sonia. Sonia’s frontal attack comes just ahead of the assembly elections in the state in December. Meanwhile, the Congress has invited Chief Minister Narendra Modi for a public debate on development in the state. The party feels this would expose Modi’s tall claims about his government’s achievements.
On Friday, a day before the formal launch of the party’s poll campaign in Gujarat, Sonia said that she was ‘greatly encouraged’ by the support the party was getting in the challenge posed by communal forces in the Modi-led state.
“The party workers will take up the challenge posed by communal forces in Gujarat and I am greatly encouraged by the support we are getting,” a news agency quoted Sonia as saying.
“I am confident that the people of Gujarat - from all sections of society, irrespective of religion or caste - will place their trust and confidence in the Congress so that the Gujarat of Gandhiji is preserved, protected and
promoted,” she added.
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